While The Murder Squad is about crime in NSW during 1920s and ’30s, the criminals of that time, as well as the police who solved/didn’t solve those crimes, there is also a great deal of social and political history.

The 1930s depression was a time of extremes, especially in NSW. You had J T Lang (known as the ‘big fella’), against the Federal Government and the repayments of loans to the UK, his sacking by the Governor, Sir Philip Game, his battle with the New Guard (a neo-Nazi/right wing organisation hoping to bring down the government). Socially you had massive unemployment which led to depression and until February 1934 those poor people used the newly opened harbour bridge to commit suicide.

The Murder Squad highlights the role that the police force played in politics and some of the unsavoury methods employed to get ‘confessions’, which in some cases led to the death sentence. Many newspapers in Sydney during this time produced editions, both morning and afternoon, that highlighted the murder rate in NSW and sensationalised those murders and their murderers usually without relying too much on the truth.

Along with all this, we also follow the career of detectives who made a name for themselves as they solved the crimes of the 1930s. Things like ballistic experts, fingerprinting and even the dog squad made their appearance.

The Murder Squad was an interesting read that kept me enthralled by the crimes and the milieu in which those crimes took place.

Reviewed by Anthony Llewellyn-Evans

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Adams is an author, journalist, TV producer and screenwriter with a broad and deep knowledge of film. His memoir SHOWGIRLS, TEEN WOLVES AND ASTRO ZOMBIES is about a year-long search for the worst movie ever made. His book SHINING LIGHTS is a profile of Australian Oscar winners, based on interviews with Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe and Geoffrey Rush.

Michael also contributed to THE 100 GREATEST FILMS OF AUSTRALIAN CINEMA, edited the AFI yearbook, and hosted Showtime’s MOVIE CLUB and SBS’s THE MOVIE SHOW. For a decade Michael was reviews editor of the Australian edition of EMPIRE and has written extensively on film and pop culture for MEN’S STYLE, YEN, ROLLING STONE, Rottentomatoes.com and Movieline.com. He most recently worked as a writer and researcher for a TV show about Australian inventors for the History Channel.